The Order of Koaxia
by Ryden and Xephfyre
Summary: After a millenia of peace, Equestria finds itself thrust into turmoil again. Six foreign beings bearing incredible power arrive in Equestria, threatening the peace, but are they simply here to destroy, or are they heralds of a greater evil yet to come?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

><p>The moon shone like a beacon, illuminating the idyllic lands that sprawled out before him in all its gentle brilliance, and he watched the world below him, surveying the realm much like how a god would survey his world. Beneath him, they scurried - like ants before men, they continued on with wrapping up their daily activities, returning back to the shelter of their homes for the night, all the whilst unaware of the all-seeing eyes that gazed down upon them.<p>

As he stood atop the ephemeral surface of the cloud, his eyes closed and his senses cast out, winged figures darted around him every now and then, passing by the cloud but never coming within spotting distance of the figure. They would always come within mere feet of catching sight of him amongst the masses of white fluff, before inexplicably remembering some vague errand they had to run somewhere else, and then veer right off, ignoring the innocuous cloud.

All this was but background noise to him - as the hooded figure who stood atop the cloud immersed himself deep in a meditative trance, his consciousness spread outwards for miles around him, feeding him information on anything and everything that existed within his sensory range.

Nothing escaped his sight - not the infant rabbits poking their heads out of their burrows miles below him, not the dozens of flying pegasi that dominated the airspace around him, not the significant pool of magical energy he had been keeping an eye on for the past several hours, the source of which was a small, purple unicorn filly that would probably have barely reached his chest - and he was also certainly not taken aback by the new presence that suddenly popped up from behind him, landing lightly on its two feet right next to him as it settled down on his right.

"So..." The new arrival began, addressing the figure who had been standing atop the cloud for what had probably been hours. "What do you make of her?"

"What, this one?" The figure made a cursory gesture in the general direction of the unicorn he had been observing, and grinned from underneath his hood. "She is young, but extremely powerful for her age. She would make a fine vessel. But I have been observing the culture of this world - they might be in for a bit of a shock when we... introduce ourselves. Apparently, they are complete strangers to concepts such as violence and bloodshed - undoubtedly, they will scarcely be able to comprehend the horrors we have witnessed."

"Not to mention perpetrated." The new arrival muttered darkly, turning away slightly. "I've been keeping an eye on the others, too - they're way too innocent. If we're going to get anything done around here, somebody's gotta break those losers in."

"Patience, brother." The figure reprimanded his cohort sharply, but did not raise his voice any louder than before. "It would not do for us to rush blindly into things after having planned for this for so long."

"The others are getting impatient too, you know." The newcomer replied testily. "We've already delayed long enough as it is - every second longer that we sit around here twiddling our thumbs, the Legion draws closer, and we're not going to know how close they really are until it's too late."

"I will _not_ let our Order which has stood for a thousand years meet its downfall now." The figure now _did_raise his voice, if only slightly, but it was enough to cow his cohort. "Tell the others to continue their vigil - come this time, three days from now, we shall make our move. Only then will the opportunities be ripe... and the timing, just right."

"If you say so..." The new arrival turned on his heel, stepping towards the edge of the cloud, but stopped just shy of leaping off of it, turning back to face the figure. "By the way, I still ain't sure which one I should pick - you're the one with the omniscience, what do you say?"

Again, from under his hood, the figure grinned as he let out a chuckle, and he turned to face his cohort.

"Definitely the rainbow one."

The second figure let out a small "pffft" as he snorted. "Heh, figures you'd peg me for that sort. All right, I'll see you tomorrow morning at the glades."

Without another word, the new arrival nonchalantly stepped off the cloud, plummeting towards the ground that awaited miles below him... until his fall was abruptly broken as he disappeared in a flash of yellow lightning, simply vanishing from sight as the yellow flash streaked North.

Yet despite his comrade's departure, the figure's grin still persisted, and he returned to his meditative trance, contemplating the presence of the lavender unicorn filly that now resided within the massive trunk of a hollowed-out tree.

Tucking a sleepy infant dragonling into bed as she prepared herself for her nightly studies, she hummed a quiet tune to herself as she nodded in acknowledgement to the owl that had just flown in from one of the open windows, settling itself down quietly on the perch that had been placed next to the unicorn's desk.

_Twilight Sparkle..._ The figure mused to himself as he continued his observations, watching the unicorn closely. _Yes... perhaps you and the other Bearers of the Elements of Harmony may make worthy vessels of power after all._

* * *

><p><em>The Elements of Harmony are known to many as the most powerful form of magic known to Equestria. Together, their combined might has cleansed deities as powerful as Nightmare Moon of the evil that plagued her, and has imprisoned forces as insidious as Discord, the embodiment of Chaos itself.<em>

_So when news of six mysterious strangers, evidently not of this world, arrives in a letter from the Princess, with rumors abound that they are searching for the Bearers of the Elements, Twilight Sparkle is rather concerned, and more than a little suspicious, of their intentions for the Elements of Harmony, fearing that they might be plotting to either destroy them, or somehow steal its power for some unknown, nefarious purpose..._

_Except that they're not plotting the theft, or destruction, of the Elements._

_They're plotting a succession - a succession of power UNTO the Bearers of the Elements. Powers the likes of which ponykind has never witnessed - and power which may upset the balance of magic in Equestria forever..._

* * *

><p><strong>Ryden presents:<strong>

**A Singapore Brony Society Production**

**"The Order of Koaxia"**


	2. Arrival

"**The Order of Koaxia"**

**Chapter 1**

**Arrival**

* * *

><p>Twilight Sparkle was not in high spirits when she woke up that morning.<p>

The young scholar was not a morning pony by most standards, yet today seemed to be very much worse than usual. Her daily dose of coffee did little to rouse her spirits after she had dragged her sore and aching body down from her bedroom to the kitchen, and Spike was giving the lavender mare that usual cautious berth every time she was in one of her "morning moods".

"More coffee, Spike." Celestia's prized student droned in a dead tone that brooked no argument, staring listlessly ahead through half-lidded, bloodshot eyes.

"Gotcha, Twilight." The young scholar's assistant nodded and dutifully zipped off to whip up a second cup of their strongest black coffee for the disgruntled mare. Within moments, the mug had been filled and placed before Twilight. Not wasting a second, she immediately cast a chilling spell on it to bring its temperature down a bit so that it wouldn't scald her tongue, and then started chugging it down as though it were water.

"Whoa, easy there, Twi'!" Spike started slightly at how vigorously the mare was ingesting her morning dose of caffeine. "Sheesh, don't you think you might have overdid it a little last night with the research?"

"Ungh." Twilight gave a non-commital grunt in reply as she thumped the mug back onto the table, groaning slightly as she massaged her temple with a hoof. "Can't do, Spike. You know how urgent the Princess sounded in her letter... But stars above, my head feels like an Ursa Major's been pounding at it from inside out..."

"_Twilight,_" The underlying warning in Spike's tone was _very_ familiar - something that crept into his voice every time he felt that she was pushing herself too hard or being too harsh on herself. "The Princess just told you to _be careful_, she didn't tell you to start burning yourself up in midnight research on mere rumors! I don't see why you're reacting so strongly to what was in that letter!"

"You saw for yourself what the Princess wrote, Spike!" Twilight's voice suddenly rose to a near shout, right before she winced and clutched at her temple again. Her horn sparked aglow; the letter that had been lying on the table in front of her was engulfed in her signature reddish aura and abruptly levitated itself into Spike's face, stopping inches from his nose.

_My dearest, most faithful student,_

_I write to you at this moment bearing news that might prove to be rather disconcerting. I do not wish to unnecessarily alarm you or your friends, but it seems that given the nature of this information, it just might. Regardless, I ask that you remain calm in the face of these new discoveries._

_A week ago, I had been conducting my regular scrying rituals over Equestria to ensure that nothing was amiss within the Weave, when I detected six strange presences I had never perceived the likes of before. Their true nature was somewhat... shadowed, and I was unable to determine if these new 'presences' are malignant or benign._

_You must believe that no force is beyond me, my faithful student, but I assure you, even as the Princess of the Sun, my magic still has its limits. If these new presences are indeed attempting to stay hidden, and they possess the means to conceal themselves from _my_ sight, even partially, this is definitely cause for caution._

_I have spent the entire past week monitoring and observing their movements, and it seems their activity has all been clustered around Ponyville - specifically, the areas where you and your friends, the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony, reside. I made a cursory check of the vault containing the Elements to be sure, and just as I suspected, I detected six foreign traces of magical energy within the chamber. No break-in attempt was made, but I suspect this is simply a foreshadowing of events to come._

_Normally I would have a royally-assigned team of magicians and scientists overlooking this matter, but the circumstances regarding this situation are rather... _new_. I am not asking you to embark on an investigation regarding this matter, as I am already looking into it personally, but I do have a request to make._

Please_, Twilight, be careful. I fear that these unknown forces may be after the Elements of Harmony, and by extension, you and your friends, for their own agenda. Without you, the Elements are useless, and I do not wish to see you or any of your friends be hurt._

_For your foreknowledge and safety, I have enclosed within this letter the crystallized residues of the magical traces I discovered outside the vault's chambers, so that you will know what to keep a lookout for - I trust that your ability to sense and recognize magical auras has not diminished any over the years. Be on your guard for anything strange that might be happening in Ponyville, and above all, stay safe._

_I'll be in touch soon._

_Your mentor,_  
><em>Princess Celestia<em>

The letter jerked abruptly away from Spike as Twilight levitated it back towards her, setting it down next to the six small, crystallized jewels, each a different color, that lay on the table. Not pausing, the young scholar grabbed hold of the daffodil sandwich that was lying on the plate Spike had placed beside her coffee, and chomped off half of it in a massive bite, wolfing it down with a fervor that betrayed just how hungry and exhausted she was.

"The Princess sent me these jewels where she stored the foreign traces of energy, and in an entire night of research not even a trace of _one_ of them has shown up in a single one of our references! It's like they don't even _exist!"_

"Why are you even _trying _to find out more about them anyway?" Spike protested, clearly not understanding. "The Princess already said she didn't want you starting an investigation because she was already looking into the matter!"

"Forewarned is forearmed, Spike." Twilight muttered as the telekinetic aura of her horn sparked again, wrapping around the six crystals on the table as they levitated themselves before her scrutinizing gaze. "I've been analyzing the magical residues in these crystals, and while each individual trace was unique, as it should be between the traces left behind between different unicorns, _there was something in common about them all._"

Another piece of paper flew off the table and floated before Spike, who grabbed it out of the air with a huff, eyeing the crude emblem that Twilight had etched onto the parchment.

"Each individual trace had this same _imprint_ upon them, like a distinctive calling card that marks it as a specific brand of magic, which all six had originated from as the same source. Such a thing is _unheard _of in Equestria, Spike - do you realize what this means? It's like six different unicorns who all have the same cutie mark!"

A hoof jabbed out in Spike's direction, pointing at the parchment he was holding. "And not only that, I am staying in a _library_ containing my _personal_ selection of academic volumes straight from the Canterlot Castle Royal Library. I have gone through my entire selection, _thrice,_ and _none_of my reference materials contain any mention, neither hair nor hide, of that symbol over there!"

The young scholar's aggravated voice reached fever pitch as she grabbed at her head, nearly tearing her frazzled mane out in frustration as she let out a strangled groan. "It just doesn't make any _sense!_It's driving me nuts!"

"Geez, chill out, Twilight!" Spike quickly held out a placating hand as he quickly moved forward to pat his surrogate sister on the back reassuringly. "You gotta stop driving yourself so hard - remember exactly _what_happened the last time you let yourself go crazy over something?"

Almost reflexively, Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but her mind decided to do her a little favor by going down memory lane first... and upon visiting _that_particular memory involving a certain ragged stuffed doll and the entire town of Ponyville, the lavender unicorn shuddered, getting her assistant's point.

"You're right, Spike, but it's just that... I've never seen anything like this before! My books have _always_ had the answers to anything that I don't know about, and for the first time, to actually _not_have something on record... It just drives me up the wall! I've never drawn a dead end on research before!"

"Well, maybe it's because you've always been researching on subjects that have been already examined by somepony before?" Spike tried with a nonchalant shrug, his brain already hurting from trying to keep up with the unicorn's intellectual pursuits. "Honestly Twilight, you're thinking too much about this! Why not just take some time off today?"

Taking a long, weary look at the six differently colored crystals that were floating before her, Twilight let out a tired sigh, and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right Spike. Suppose I ought to go visit the girls today, see how _they're_doing."

"Oh, are you dropping by Rarity's! Maybe I can-"

"Hold it right there, Casanova." Twilight held out a hoof to stop her hopeful, overeager assistant with a small chuckle. "I seem to remember that you still have quite a few chores left to handle before the day is over."

"Awww... "

* * *

><p>A proper breakfast was always the best start to a new day, and Twilight was feeling <em>much<em>more refreshed and in much better spirits when she left the library later that morning. The sun hadn't risen much from its orientation in the east, and Twilight's clock read a quarter past ten when she had departed, the six jewels tucked away safely in her saddlebag.

Plenty of time for her to carry out what she had in mind.

Celestia had sent her that letter as a heads-up, so that she would know what she might be up against instead of being left completely in the dark. It was only fair that her friends knew about this too - as bearers of the Elements of Harmony, they were just as involved in this as she was.

They had the right to know too.

First stop: Rarity's. Carousel Boutique was the closest in Ponyville, next to Sugarcube Corner, but Twilight would rather avoid having to deal with Pinkie Pie first thing in the morning, and it would take a while to get to Sweet Apple Acres, or the outskirts of the town where Fluttershy's cottage and Rainbow Dash's cloud manor were situated.

The trip to the Rarity's home was an uneventful one. Twilight passed by Lyra and Bon-bon on the way there; the mint green mare was sitting down with her fillyfriend on a bench again in that strange, outlandish manner she always did - Twilight gave them both a friendly wave as she trotted on by, her greeting returned with equal enthusiasm and open smiles.

A fifteen-minute trot later and the young scholar found herself at the doorway leading into Carousel Boutique. Raising her hoof, Twilight knocked on the door to announce her arrival, and was greeted by a very distinctive sing-song voice.

"_Co~miiiing!~" _Rarity's mellifluous tone floated out from behind the door, moments before it swung open, revealing the fashionista in all her prim and proper glory.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique!" The greeting was almost automatic as Rarity stepped out to welcome her latest guest. "Where everything is chic, unique, and magni- oh, it's you, Twilight!"

"Good to see you too, Rarity." Twilight chuckled as she gave her friend a brief hug, the alabaster white unicorn stepping aside to allow her in. "How's everything going?"

"Oh, simply marvelous, darling!" Rarity tittered as she closed the door behind Twilight. "I just received a letter from Fancy Pants in Canterlot expressing his interest in expanding his clothing line to include my latest designs! Can you _believe_ it! Me, working with _Fancy Pants!_"

Beside herself with joy, Rarity skipped gracefully to the table where a half-written letter and a quill rested, no doubt Rarity's reply to the Canterlot elite. As Twilight neared, she spied several lines that had been hastily crossed out, some of them written in immaculate, perfect cursive, while others in a messy, indecipherable scrawl.

It seemed as though the fashionista was having trouble drafting a coherent reply - Twilight only had time to glimpse something about "moustache socks" before Rarity swept away the letter and the quill with a burst of her magic, setting them in a nearby drawer. "Well, as great as my career is going right now, I don't suppose you're here simply on a social visit, Twilight - you go on those rarely enough as it is! Is there something you need my help with?"

"Well yes, actually I have." Twilight stated. She opened her saddlebag, levitating out the six jewels she had stashed inside. Rarity's eyes almost immediately lit up at the sight of their sheer brilliance, but to her credit she stayed silent, awaiting Twilight's explanation. "I need you to listen carefully to what I have to say, Rarity, and not jump to any wild conclusions, or take any drastic actions after this. Can you promise me that?"

Rarity nodded but affixed Twilight with a strange look. "I promise, Twilight, but I don't see how-"

"It's from the Princess." Twilight's grave tone was all the answer Rarity needed, and the unicorn mare immediately fell silent. Twilight began to pace about restlessly.

"The Princess just sent me a letter with a word of caution, along with these six gemstones. They're actually imbued with the residue of six different magic signatures, and the Princess has told me that they are the residues of six presences which she... has never sensed before. Apparently, they've been snooping around Equestria for the past several weeks, and their activities have all been centred around Ponyville."

The lavender unicorn stopped her pacing just long enough to look out the window, and for just a split second, she could have sworn she saw a shadow standing behind a nearby tree, the silhouette of a creature she had never seen before - one that resembled an upright monkey - right before it disappeared from sight.

The unicorn blinked, nonplussed for all of two seconds, before shaking her head slightly and continued her explanation, ignoring the hackles that had suddenly raised on the back of her neck - Rarity had probably not seen it at all, and it would have been better not to ask if she had.

"Anyway, my point is that the Princess is worried about us. She discovered those same six traces in the vault room that contained the Elements of Harmony, and now here they are, camped out around Ponyville, where all six of us, the Bearers of the Elements, live. She thinks they might be after us for something, and frankly, I think so too."

Rarity's expression was positively aghast by now. "Why, of all the- But who could possibly want anything out of us? I mean, we're just six ordinary mares living ordinary lives here!"

"We _are_ the Bearers of the Elements, Rarity. Like it or not, as long as anypony is after the Elements, it makes us a target." Twilight replied grimly. "Still, there isn't much reason for us to panic - the Princess is looking into this _personally._She just sent me these jewels so I would know what to look out for, but she wants us to stay safe in the meantime. So, I'm passing around these jewels between the six of us so we'll each have a heads up on what's coming."

The six jewels set themselves on the table and Rarity stepped closer to have a better look, as curious as she was filled with trepidation.

They were all each a different color, and each even had their own unique shape. There was a topaz that had been cut into an extremely jagged shape not unlike a lightning bolt, and a sapphire that formed what looked like an ice crystal. Next to them lay a perfectly oblong piece of obsidian, jet black with a mirror-like finish, and a teardrop-shaped leafy green emerald. A fiery-red ruby that reminded her of the precious gemstone dear little Spike had given her was the second last piece of the ensemble, but even that paled in comparison to the brilliant sunburst diamond that lay in the centre.

"My, my..." The fashionista whispered in near reverence, not daring to touch the crystals out of fear of dirtying them with her hooves. "Well, as odd as the whole matter is, I can understand where you're coming from, Twilight. I'll just take a look at the magical signatures inside, and- _WAHAHAAA!"_

Her horn had lit up and had immediately wrapped the jewels in her signature aura as she was speaking, delving inside to examine the magical residues stored within... and almost instantly, the sapphire had _reacted_.

Twilight could almost see the magical feedback loop itself back through Rarity's connection as _something_shot from the sapphire and surged right down Rarity's horn. The white unicorn pony shuddered as though she had been dipped in a tub of ice, and she broke the connection before backing away several steps, gasping and shivering madly.

"D-d-did... T-Twilight, did that j-just... Oh... Oh my stars..."

The unicorn's pupils had shrunk to pinpricks as she stared at the sapphire as though it had burned her. But Twilight on the other hoof was gazing at the jewel, befuddled and astonished.

"Huh. That happened to me too with the diamond! Except I got blinded for a few minutes by a burst of light, instead of getting frozen from the inside," the young scholar muttered to herself as she eyed the sapphire critically, wondering why it had reacted differently for her.

When she had first delved into the jewels to examine the magical residues stored inside them, the energies inside the diamond had reacted to her presence almost _violently_.

_… black had become white and white had become negative and the glory of all creation in a single radiant ray..._

A brilliant burst of light had exploded out of the sunburst diamond as she inspected it, leaving the lavender unicorn writhing on the floor for several minutes, clutching at her eyes and screaming in pain. She had recovered soon after and steadfastly resumed her study on the rest of the jewels with heightened wariness, although thankfully they had not reacted as violently as the diamond had.

"Whatever that means, Twilight," Rarity's voice chattered from where she had collapsed onto a nearby sofa, still shivering from.. _whatever_ it was that had shaken her so badly. "I... I've never _experienced_anything like that before. It felt like... like it was reacting to something in me!"

Any other day and Twilight would have chalked Rarity's statement up to her usual flair for the dramatic, but having experienced the same thing herself a few days ago, she knew her friend was being dead serious.

If that was the case... things might have gotten a mite bit more interesting.

"Rarity," Twilight began, with the hints of a revelation dawning upon her expression. "Call the rest of the girls to my place. I think we're going to need a meeting."

* * *

><p>Rainbow Dash wasn't a pony who appreciated having her afternoon naps interrupted, but when Pinkie Pie literally burst through the cloud she had been napping on right next to her head, the rainbow-maned pegasus had little else to do but jolt awake, yelping.<p>

Twilight had called for a sudden meeting at the library, citing a "royal emergency". Pinkie, naturally, was the first to find her, the pink partygoer's patented Pinkie Sense making it nigh impossible for anypony to hide from her.

As it was, the earth pony had pulled the cyan speedster out from her cloud bed before she even knew what was going on, bringing her back to ground level and dragging her by the hoof to Twilight's library treehouse against her protests.

"C'mon Pinkie, let go! I can walk by myself, geez!" Rainbow Dash grunted in annoyance as she snatched her hoof out of Pinkie's grip, rubbing her sore wrist. Her head was still pounding from the rude awakening she had been given, and the pegasus was in quite a sour mood. "So Twilight just called this meeting out of nowhere?"

"She didn't say anything about what it was about!" Pinkie Pie replied in her usual carefree, I-don't-give-a-hay voice, prancing about Rainbow Dash in circles as the pegasus dragged her hooves on the ground. "She _did_say it was super duper important though, so it must be important enough that she'd have to call a meeting for all of us, since if it wasn't super duper important, she could always just come see us one by one, but that would take too much time if it really was super important! And-"

"Uh huh, uh huh," Rainbow Dash groaned, tuning out the rest of her fellow prankster's inane ramblings as she continued trudging along to Twilight's library. Seriously, this was _way_too early in the afternoon to be woken up like this...

Ten minutes later and the two mares had arrived at the library's doorstep, Rainbow Dash's sour mood not having let up at all. Pinkie Pie, in typical Pinkie Pie fashion, started rapping on the door with her skull, not displaying even the slightest bit of discomfort.

_*bonk-bonk-bonk* _"Twilight!"

_*bonk-bonk-bonk* _"Twilight!"

_*bonk-bonk-bonk* _"Twilight!"

Before Pinkie could give herself a concussion from all the knocks her head was making, the door quickly opened, and Twilight's head stuck out from behind it, her eyebrows furrowed.

"All right, Pinkie, no need to break your face against my door. Come on in, it's about time you two arrived. Everypony else is already here."

"Not my fault everypony else decided to be awake at the crack of noon... This better be good, Twilight." Rainbow Dash muttered crabbily as she stepped inside with Pinkie Pie, letting out a massive yawn as she looked around.

The other four ponies were already gathered around Twilight's coffee table, Applejack taking swigs from a bottle of Sweet Apple Acres apple cider while Rarity and Fluttershy were drinking tea.

Twilight on the other hand, had no drink on hoof - instead, a small leather pouch lay on the table at the spot she had occupied, and Dash found herself absently wondering just what it contained.

"Oh trust me, it is." The young scholar replied with a slight edge to her voice, something Rainbow couldn't quite place... Almost as if it implied '_I know something awesome that you don't_'.

Shaking her head, the cyan pegasus stepped inside to join the rest at the coffee table, and waited impatiently for Twilight's explanation. "Well then, what're ya waiting for? Spill the beans!"

"Yeah, Twi'. So what _is_it that ya gathered all'o us here for, anyway?" Applejack piped up as well, the orange mare's expression showing equal curiosity. "Sounded mighty important, if ya had ta drag us all from our daily chores ta show it to us on such short notice."

"Well," Twilight started, a slightly hesitant expression on her face, as though she wasn't exactly sure how to begin - she paused for a moment. "You see, it started out when I received this letter from the Princess..."

She laid out everything for them. Rarity had already heard it before but she repeated it all the same for the benefit of the rest of her friends, emptying the pouch of its contents and scattering the six jewels onto the table.

As Twilight's recount went on, several expressions washed over the table, changing as she went along. Mostly expressions of shock and surprise, and Fluttershy shrank even further back into her mane with a nervous squeak when Twilight mentioned that they might be in danger from whoever was seeking out the Elements. Rainbow Dash's expression slowly went from skepticism, to disbelief, and then to outright incredulity when Twilight finally began to explain what the jewels were, before she finally burst out sniggering, barely able to keep herself from reaching outright peals of laughter.

"Oh, man, that's _rich_, Twilight!" The cyan pegasus managed through her laughter. "Yeah, like a bunch of spooky stalkers who don't even dare show themselves are gonna be any threat to us! We're the Elements of freakin Harmony! Nopony's gonna dare attack us! Ain't that right, Pinks?"

Looking to her fellow prankster for support, Rainbow Dash's face fell, and her sniggering almost immediately died out when she realized that Pinkie Pie wasn't laughing along with her.

To her surprise, the normally-jovial partygoer's expression was shockingly serious, and there wasn't even a hint of a smile on her face. In fact, her mane seemed to have _deflated _slightly, losing a bit of its normal poofiness.

"Twilight's right, Rainbow Dash," Pinkie Pie murmured softly, her eyes locked on the jewels laying on the table, her hind legs twitching almost imperceptibly. "This is something serious - I can feel my Pinkie Sense trying to tell me something. I've... never felt _this _before. This... this is way bigger than Equestria."

"Your Pinkie- oh, for crying out loud!" Rainbow Dash groaned before throwing her hooves up in exasperation. "Am I the _only_one around here who isn't unnecessarily worried?"

"Ah think ya might be the only one 'round here who ain't _necessarily_worried." Applejack suddenly cut in, fixing Rainbow Dash with a stern glare before turning to Twilight. "Twi', ah got a feeling there's more ya ain't told us yet 'bout these here jewels yet, am ah right?"

"Right, Applejack," Twilight answered as she telekinetically lifted up each of the jewels one by one. "The Princess sent me these jewels so I could study the signatures and recognize them if I ever encountered whatever left them behind, but something unexpected happened."

The young scholar's signature aura wrapped itself around the diamond and the sapphire, bringing the diamond towards her while floating the sapphire over to Rarity, who simply took it wordlessly and laid it down on the table in front of her.

"Rarity and I each had a specific _one_ of these jewels react to each of us. The energies inside seemed to... synergize with our own individual signatures, so to speak. However, the jewel that reacted to _her_ was different from the jewel that reacted to _me_, and even the manner in which it happened was also different. I got blinded by this burst of light from this diamond right here," Twilight lifted up the aforementioned diamond to illustrate, "While Rarity got a very different reaction from the sapphire."

"It was... _cold_." Rarity spoke up, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "I don't know how to describe it. It was like... Like I was standing in the middle of an blizzard. Frigid winds, buffeting me from all directions, ice creeping through my veins, freezing me to my very bones..."

The upper-class unicorn shuddered at the mere memory of it, and she drew in even closer to herself. "It was _horrible."_

"That burst of light that I got hit with from the diamond wasn't exactly a breeze either." Twilight explained to the rest as she patted Rarity comfortingly on the shoulder. "It felt like somepony had just set the very sun off right before my eyes. I couldn't see for a few minutes after that; my eyes just hurt so badly. I managed to recover after a short while, but seeing Rarity react differently to the sapphire, combined with the nature of her reaction in relation to the sapphire's shape... It got me thinking."

Reaching forward, she pushed the remaining four jewels towards the rest of her gathered friends. "The sunburst diamond hit me with a burst of light. The sapphire, shaped like an ice crystal, had Rarity experience intense chills. If my hypothesis is correct, I think each of these jewels react in a certain manner that corresponds to their shape and color, and only to a certain individual. It's only a theory right now, but it's all I have to go on right now... and I'd like each of you to try touching these jewels to see what kind of reaction we get. It's not going to be permanent, and whatever effects they have should be gone after a few minutes, so it should be quite safe."

"What, that's all?" Rainbow Dash snorted. "Man, Twilight, you really got a hay of an imagination up there. If I didn't know you any better, I'd say this was some sorta epic prank you were about to play on us!"

At that point Rarity shot the cyan speedster an offended glare, but to her credit, she stayed silent as Rainbow Dash sauntered up to the table and eyed the gems lazily. "Well, I guess I can play along here. Hmmm, wonder which of these I should pick first..."

Her hoof hovered over the ruby for a moment, travelling over it with a ghost of a touch, and Twilight watched with bated breath as Rainbow Dash picked it up...

… and absolutely nothing happened.

"Well, that was a scam all right." The pegasus muttered sourly as she let the ruby fall to the table with a small clatter, her eyes already travelling between the remaining three gems before she reached out for the topaz. "I wouldn't be surprised if this one didn't- _KYAAAAAGGHHHH!"_

The moment her hoof closed around it, Rainbow Dash's foreleg erupted in violent twitches and spasms as _electricity_danced about her hoof.

_Lightning coursing through her body, muscles spasming in molten agony as lethal currents overloaded synapses..._

Crying out in pain, the cyan pegasus reflexively let go as the thunderbolt-shaped topaz clattered to the table, and she collapsed backwards onto her rump, rapidly scooting away several steps.

"Wha-what the _hay_ was that!" Fear laced Rainbow Dash's voice as she stared at the topaz on the table the very same way one might have stared fearfully at a predatory snake about to attack, still shaking her smarting hoof. "V-very funny, Twilight! Nice trick, putting some kinda prank shock spell on that jewel over there, t-that was a real nasty one!"

"That was no trick, Rainbow Dash." Twilight reprimanded as she picked up the topaz, with a very noticeable lack of suffering from an electric shock. "Seems you found out which one of the crystals reacts to you."

Her eyes now mere pinpricks, Dash quickly turned to Pinkie as though hoping that this was somehow at least some cruel prank that she was in on too, but the pink earth pony seemed just as shocked as the rest had been.

"Oh, _horseapples._" The pegasus whispered hoarsely.

"Well then, now that you know that the threat is for _real_, Rainbow Dash, rather than some inane flight of fantasy that Twilight is having," Rarity said in a clipped tone. "Let us see who else the gems react to."

"I don't get it, though," Pinkie spoke up, pouting quizzically at the six precious stones. "You want each of us to touch these gems and get hurt? Where's the good in that?"

Twilight inhaled deeply. "It's a natural occurrence dating back to before the founding of Equestria. Unicorn ponies would use gemstones to enhance their inner magical powers. Back then most unicorns had a very small capacity to do magic, but they found that when the right gemstones were used, each individual pony could amplify his or her own magical output to carry out more strenuous tasks. With continued use, the gemstones would actually store a small amount of magical energy each time, until they became imbued with an aura of their own."

"That explains Rarity," Applejack interjected, half-jokingly, earning her an accusatory stare from the snow white unicorn.

"In Rarity's defence," Twilight cut in again, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. "Unicorns don't use gemstones to amplify their magic any more, since our capacity for performing magic has broadened over the ages. It's usually used nowadays as a method of recording magical signatures by storing small samples, but nopony has ever needed to store a large amount of energy to be used all at once in centuries."

"Anyway, moving on, every unicorn has their own unique aura, as you can see from the various colours our horns glow when we cast our magic. It's been that way ever since way back then. During that time, however, it was discovered that when certain unicorns came into contact with certain magic-imbued gemstones used by ponies before them, _if _the harmonic wavelengths between their magical signatures resonated in just the right manner to synchronize together, there would be a strong reaction in the unicorn, and a resonance of magical power would occur, releasing massive amounts of energy. And then..."

Twilight's voice faded unnaturally as a morbid thought suddenly crept into her mind. She tensed up all of a sudden, staring listlessly at the opposite wall.

"And then what?" Pinkie Pie demanded, excited that the story seemed to be reaching a climax. Twilight bit her lower lip and shifted her gaze to stare downwards.

"Well, let's just say there were a few bad ponies who got a little too greedy," Rarity said crisply, and everypony turned to look at her (except Fluttershy, who was apparently busy hiding under the table).

"I've been in the gem-dealing business long enough to know of such a history," The alabaster white unicorn explained, averting their gazes and eyeing the gemstones guardedly. "Which is why I only use natural gems dug out from the ground. But that's exactly what Twilight is trying to explain to all of you. She thinks that these gems here have that same magical resonance as each of us. And I'm sure she would be able to get to the bottom of this mystery once she's seen how they react to each of us."

"That's a dandy story an' all, but that don' explain why Rainbow Dash of all ponies got that nasty shocker from touching this 'ere gemstone," Applejack pointed out. "Ah mean, she's a pegasus, not a unicorn!"

"Magical energy is everywhere, Applejack," Twilight spoke, regaining her composure. "It permeates every living thing in Equestria, from trees to animals to ponies. There have indeed been cases of magical resonance occurring in non-unicorns in the past, though admittedly those _were_quite rare. Also, try to recall, the six Elements of Harmony. Five necklaces and one big crown-"

"-Tiara," Rarity interjected matter-of-factly.

"-Tiara, right. Think carefully, what was a common feature among all of them?"

It made sense to Applejack all of a sudden. "Gemstones," she answered. "Gemstones shaped like our cutie marks."

"Exactly." The young scholar cast a hoof over the jewels to illustrate her point. "Take a good look at these. There are six of them, and there are six of us, and already three of them have reacted strongly to Rainbow Dash, Rarity and me. It honestly isn't much of a stretch to hypothesize that the remaining three would also react to the rest of you in a similar fashion."

Twilight placed both her forelegs on the table and leaned forwards on them, an expectant look on her face.

"Is everypony clear now? Then let's continue. Fluttershy, you're next," Twilight addressed the cowering figure underneath the table.

Fluttershy jerked in surprise upon mention of her name, banging lightly against the table. Rubbing where she bumped her head, she peeked out from below and glanced wide-eyed at Twilight before nervously looking at everypony else, who stared back intently. Her eyes fell to Rainbow Dash, still backed up against the far wall, inspecting the hoof she touched the topaz with in shaky uncertainty. The yellow pegasus gasped at such a frightful sight and began to shrink back from the table.

"I-It's okay, I d-d-don't think I'd like to know anyway. I've heard enough already," she stuttered, pushing herself away from the menacing pieces of stone. Twilight quickly got to her hooves and positioned herself behind Fluttershy, attempting to push her back.

"C'mon Fluttershy!" Twilight huffed as she put all her weight into opposing the timid pony's motion, who was redoubling her efforts by frantically beating her wings. "This is no time to be scared! Equestria may be in danger, and if it is, everypony's counting on us to stay strong and see this through!"

"I can't!" Fluttershy wailed. "I can't! Look what happened to Rainbow Dash! I don't wanna get struck by lightning!... Or frozen to the bone... Or blinded by the sun... Or eaten by a giant sea monster... Or get hit by a falling piano... Or-"

"Alright, that's enough!" Twilight cast a Blink spell that instantly brought the both of them back to the wooden table, the pegasus sandwiched between the furniture and the unicorn pressing behind her.

"It's okay, Twilight," Applejack spoke up. "We don't need ta be fightin' between ourselves ovah this." The farmer mare reared up on her hind legs and eyed the jewels warily. "Ah'll just show Fluttershy here that there ain't nuthin' ta be afraid about. It's just a strong reaction that wouldn't last more than a second, ain't it?"

Not taking her eyes off the precious stones, Applejack took several deep breaths and exercised her shoulders, elbows and wrists for a bit. In the deepest part of her gut she, too, was dreading what horrifying fate touching that specific gem might put her through, but she had to do this for Fluttershy's sake. Meanwhile, Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight and Fluttershy were all staring at her with bated breath, worried.

Applejack closed her eyes, took one last breath to steel herself, then opened them again. Her face a study in concentration and readiness, she examined each gem in detail and made mental deductions to divine which gem would be the one for her. Twilight Sparkle had a reaction to the sunburst diamond, Rarity to the ice crystal-like sapphire, and Rainbow Dash the thunderbolt-shaped topaz.

Her eyes fell to the large ruby sitting to one side. The more she looked at it, the more it seemed to take the shape of an apple. A sparkling, blocky malformed apple, but an apple nonetheless. This had to be the one for her.

_Here goes nothin', _she thought to herself. Not allowing herself to hesitate any further, she thrust her left forehoof forward to make contact with it...

… And felt her hoof enter an open furnace.

_Fire, fire everywhere, burning, red hot blazes surrounding her in an endless burning field of flames..._

White-hot fire rushed up the insides of her foreleg as an unbearable heat washed over her, and she instantly broke out in perspiration, sweating buckets as though she'd been put inside a microwave.

_Broken, burning husks, smoldering in the distance, shimmering mirages from the heat..._

Yelping out in shock, she jerked her hoof back, shaking it vigorously as the incredible heat pressing in against her fleetly dissipated, allowing the relative coolness of the library's air to provide her with much-needed relief.

"Whoa... Whoa-nelly, _that _was somethin' else all right!" The orange mare gasped shakily as she inspected her hoof - the spot where she had touched the fiery red ruby had been slightly singed, and the skin was lobster red and blistering slightly.

"What is it, Applejack? What did you feel?" Twilight asked eagerly.

"Ah... Ah can't really describe it." Applejack shook her head, wiping off the sweat from her brow as she spoke. "It felt like... like ah was on fire. This _heat_, pressin' in from everywhere, fire goin' up mah foreleg like ah'd stuck it in a fireplace..."

The orange mare's mind flickered back to the vision of the all-encompassing blaze she had just glimpsed, and she gulped, shaking her head. "Boy, whatever fire's big enough ta make that kinda heat, ah hope ah _never _have tah see it."

Applejack instantly regretted everything she had just said. If anything, it had just served to cement Fluttershy's fear in place. The pegasus let out a terrified squeak, holding her hooves over her head as she cowered in place, huddled up on the floor.

Pinkie Pie's prankster mind, idly observing the situation from where she had hung back with a relaxed air, hit up with an idea just then. If Fluttershy wasn't going to touch the gem, then she was gonna make the gem touch her! Something dreadful might happen, but it shouldn't last for long, right? Anyway, it's what Twilight wants, and if there's anypony you can trust regarding things ponies don't know here in Ponyville, it'd be Twilight (with the exception of Pinkie herself).

The party pony glared mischievously at the remaining two gemstones. One was a teardrop-shaped emerald and the other, an oval cut of obsidian. It made sense to Pinkie that the green gem came closer to describing Fluttershy's personality instead of the black one since it represented the colour of nature, so she gingerly scooped up the emerald, testing its weight on her hooves...

_Burning poison coursing through her veins, spikes of pain in every movement..._

… and right then, a wave of nausea washed over her. A pang of sickness several degrees more severe than the time she ate Applejack's 'baked bads' struck her gut like a red-hot poker, causing her to double over, hitting the floor with a thump.

_Full of venom, her insides contorting, muscles spasming, sheer agony, organs failing..._

Everypony instantly focused their attention on her as she began to turn an unhealthy shade of green, her eyes droopy and bloodshot. Pinkie Pie didn't even have time to respond as she started to purse her lips and puff her cheeks, a sign of imminent vomiting. Her throat welled up in seething bile-

Alarmed, Twilight Sparkle rushed over and swatted the emerald out of Pinkie's hooves. Instantly, the nausea disappeared. Pinkie Pie gasped feebly for air, splayed out on the ground. All color had drained from her face, leaving her ghastly pale.

"That..." She croaked. "... That was one heck of a doozy..."

"Sweet Celestia..." Twilight murmured, quickly placing the emerald back with the rest of the jewels before helping Pinkie Pie back on her feet, the latter's knees still shaking slightly. "Are you alright? It almost looked like you were getting _poisoned _there, Pinkie."

"It's... it's all good, Twilight," Pinkie wheezed, smiling despite her apparent exhaustion. "It'll... it'll all be gone in a minute, right?"

"Still, you should've at least warned us before you picked it up! Something really bad could've happened to you if I didn't act fast enough!" Twilight exclaimed worriedly.

"Sorry about that. I thought the emerald was for Fluttershy, so I picked it up thinking it'd be okay." Pinkie Pie grinned weakly - even as Twilight sat her on a chair, some of her energy already seemed to be returning, and color was quickly returning to her face. Looking over, she called out, "Fluttershy, c'mon! I've taken my turn, now it's yours! You're the only pony left."

"Wha-! No!" Fluttershy squeaked in protest. "Please, please no!"

"Now hold yer horses just a minute, Twi'," Applejack cut in suddenly, coming to Fluttershy's defence. "Ah think we've seen enuff, which is ter say nuthin' at all. Already five of us have touched these gems and got hurt somethin' fierce, yet I don't see no magical 'splosions happ'nin', like ya said. It's like we're killin' ourselves here fer no good reason."

Exasperated, Twilight retorted, "That's because it doesn't always happen that way, AJ. All that magic gets sucked in wordlessly by the pony manipulating the gem. You would need an immensely powerful unicorn wielding a gem practically soaked in magical energy to expect a magical explosion coming out from just a single pony. More often, a violent reverberation occurs when multiple unicorns wielding their own gemstones harmonize together. Just like the Elements of Harmony."

"Which is why..." Twilight turned back to look at Fluttershy. "It is really important that you do this, Fluttershy. I want to see what would happen once all six of us have reacted to each of these gems."

The timid pony quavered her lips, about to put together another feeble objection, when she felt a comforting foreleg wrap around her shoulders. It belonged to Pinkie Pie, who was grinning at her with confidence.

"Listen, Fluttershy," The pink earth pony spoke. "I know it's hard for you! You've always been scared of the littlest things, running away when anypony else would've stood their ground, but other times you would do just the opposite, standing firm when everypony else is running away! Well, _now_is one of those times! Stand firm with us! And if you ever think that you can't do it, then remember this!"

A pink hoof thumped over Pinkie's heart, which then thrust into Fluttershy's chest. "Believe! Believe in the me who believes in you, and believes in all of us! We're all friends, and if we stick together, there's _nothing _we can't do! We're all here for you if anything happens - now go on, and touch that jewel!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but smiled nonetheless. "Wow, Pinkie, I never knew you had it in you for such motivational speeches!"

The party pony responded with a nonchalant shrug. "It just struck me at the moment, it was more spontaneous than anything. But little 'Shy over here sounded like she could use some encouragement!"

At the mention of 'little', Fluttershy twitched an eyebrow, before breaking free from Pinkie and striding towards the table resolutely.

"I'm a year _older _than you, Pinkie," she muttered with a frown as she came up to the table, setting her eyes on the final gemstone.

The obsidian. Perfectly oblong in shape, with a mirror-like finish that made it appear like it had been polished completely smooth, Fluttershy could see her reflection near crystal-clearly on the gem's surface. But there was something... strange about it. Her reflection was gazing back at her with an odd intensity, and she could have sworn that the corners of its mouth were turned slightly upwards. Vibes of cruelty and sadism radiated from the wide-eyed stare her reflection was giving her, and her orbs were equally wide as she stared back into the blackness of the gemstone.

Swallowing nervously, Fluttershy desperately tried to ignore the knot of tension in her stomach. Something inside her was screaming out to her about the obsidian and its _wrongness_, begging her to stay as far away from it as possible. Yet every single one of her friends had already braved their respective gemstones and whatever otherworldly sensations they had brought - she had to do so as well, if only for their sake!

Taking in a huge breath as though she was about to go underwater, Fluttershy braced herself for whatever onslaught the gem might unleash, and pushed her hoof forward to meet with the obsidian, her eyes scrunched shut.

Darkness pressed in from all around her. There was no sight, no smell, no taste, no sound, no touch, _no nothing, no..._

_**-KEEEEeeeeEEEEE**_

_**w**__HitEm0nSteriNtHEBLACKNESS-_

_**us-l-sswe-kling...**_

_THOSEYESTHOSEYESTHOSEYES BURNINGYELLOWLEYES IKECOALINTHE-_

_**h-**krzrk-**h...what-l0ser...**_

__BoRiNgthEDePThsoFmys0ul HELPMEGETITAWAY GETITAWAY _GETAWA_

_**heret0st4y-b0dy-s-m1ne!**_

_NONONONONONONONONO__**NONONO**__-_

"Fluttershy! _**FLUTTERSHY!**_"

* * *

><p>Grasping on to the sound of the voice like a drowning mare clutching to a lifeline, the darkness fell away as light returned to Fluttershy's world, and she awoke with a gasp, finding herself in cold sweat, shaking madly from head to tail and her hooves clenched to whiteness.<p>

The first face she locked onto was Rainbow Dash's, who stood over her with both hooves grabbing her shoulders and shaking her frantically. Rose-colored eyes full of concern met her own terror-struck ones, and Fluttershy did the only thing she felt capable of doing at the moment.

She fell forward and threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's neck, collapsing against her fillyhood friend and crying broken sobs into her shoulder.

"Oh... Oh Celestia..." Fluttershy choked out. "Rainbow, I... it..."

The pegasus said no further as she broke down into a fit of terrified weeping. Rainbow Dash shot Twilight as dirty look as she pulled her crying fillyhood friend into a comforting embrace.

"I hope you're happy now, Twilight," The cyan speedster mocked sourly as Fluttershy bawled into her shoulder. "I don't know what was in that jewel she just touched, but it certainly wasn't worth this kind of trauma!"

"Well, I... That just..." For the first time since the meeting began, Twilight was at a loss for words. She knew that the sensations brought about by the jewels would have been drastic, but she didn't think that poor Fluttershy would take it that hard...

"So, uh..." Applejack suddenly piped up, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the library, disturbed only by the soft sound of Fluttershy's sobs. "We've all touched the gems already, Twi'; now what? Ah _still _don't see any magical 'splosions."

"Umm..." _Again _put on the spot, Twilight found herself floundering.

"It's not entirely your fault, darling," Rarity's voice cut in on Twilight's chaotic thoughts. "Honestly, your theory did make a lot of sense, and nopony else here knows about magic as much as you do. We had every reason to trust and listen to what you had to say, and even you couldn't have known that nothing would happen. Fluttershy just needs some... support right now."

Twilight glanced over with a tormented look to Fluttershy, still heaving against Rainbow Dash's shoulder, and felt a pang of guilt. The poor pegasus had been hit so hard by whatever had been in that obsidian, she couldn't help but feel partly responsible for her current state.

"I..." Twilight quickly moved over to Fluttershy and placed a hoof on her shoulder. The pegasus turned to her, her face still streaked with tears. "I'm so sorry for putting you through that, Fluttershy."

To her surprise, Fluttershy got up and, despite her tears, turned to face her, wiping her face and composing herself.

"It's... it's all right," The timid little pegasus said, her voice wavering despite her best efforts to stay calm, and she gave Twilight a shaky smile. "L-like Rarity said, you c-couldn't have known what was going t-to happen. P-please, don't feel bad on m-my behalf. I... This was m-my experience, and I'll..."

She paused to take a deep breath. "I'll j-just have to deal with it somehow."

"Well, _that's _settled, but I still feel like this just one big fat waste of time!" A high-pitched voice trilled from the side, and everypony turned to see Pinkie Pie with a very disappointed look on her face. "We've all touched the jewels, but nothing's happened! _What_is going on here, Twilight?"

"I... I honestly don't know!" Twilight replied, truly stumped. "This was not what I had expected!"

What she _had _expected was some kind of harmonic reaction to occur once all of them had synergized with the energies inside the jewels, some sort of observable phenomenon at least... But even after Fluttershy had broken free of whatever hold the obsidian had over her, there was still nothing! It couldn't have entirely been a waste!

Unless...!

"Wait just a moment... Applejack!" Twilight rushed forward, suddenly standing right next to the orange apple farmer. "Hold still, this'll just take a sec!"

"Wha-" Applejack was cut off as Twilight's aura engulfed her without warning, and the apple farmer immediately went wide-eyed and slack jawed as her eyes glazed over.

Twilight delved her magical senses as deep into Applejack as she could. At first everything seemed just fine, and there was nothing out of the ordinary with the apple farmer's body, but upon closer inspection, she realized that there was something unnatural in there, something tiny...

There! Right within the deepest recesses of Applejack's ley line system, where her gut would have physically been, a tiny, orange flame burned. It flickered occasionally, but it more or less burned steadily; a constant fire in Applejack's belly. The signature was tiny enough that it could barely be registered, but it was there nonetheless.

That was all the young scholar needed to see. Twilight retracted her magical probe, and Applejack gasped as her senses returned.

"What in tarnation-" The orange mare brought her hooves to Twilight's shoulders, staring at her firmly. "Was that _fire _inside me just now?"

"I think you just absorbed most of the gem's energy into your body, Applejack," Twilight explained, backing away a step. "In fact, I think all of us just did - it's a tiny amount that shouldn't be able to do anything on its own, but let me just make sure of this!"

Before anypony could protest, they felt a scanning spell pass over each and every one of them, probing into the deepest levels. Rainbow Dash squirmed uncomfortably as the spell passed over her, and Pinkie outright giggled as it did the same for her.

"Tee-heehee! It tickles!"

"Hold _still_, Pinkie," Twilight muttered with a hint of irritation. "Otherwise the readings won't be as accurate... There!"

A smile began to form on the lavender unicorn's face as the results of the scanning spell began to play in her head... Before dropping slack-jawed in shock as she finally understood.

"No way..."

There were signatures now embedded in _all_of them. Just like how Applejack had that tiny flame burning in her gut, the tiny flame that had once resided inside the ruby she had touched, each and every one of them had some form of the signatures that had once resided inside the jewels now embedded inside the deepest reaches of their beings.

A tiny spark of electricity pulsed in tune Rainbow Dash's beating heart, lodged in the very insides of where her organ might have been on her ley line system. In Pinkie's, a tiny, writhing worm of green fluid squirmed about where her stomach would have been.

Amongst Rarity's ley lines, a ghostly breath of winter fog, composed of tiny ice crystals, coursed through her body, seemingly travelling in random with no specific destination in mind. Fluttershy's own signature was a tiny speck of blackness, seeded deep within her brain, but something about the activity of her ley line system suggested that she was actively blocking it, attempting to squash it out.

And within her own ley line system... a single, radiant ray of light burned brilliantly within her breast, tiny but bright. It was small enough that she sincerely doubted it would have had much effect on her day-to-day usage of her ley lines to conduct her magic, but its presence stood out nonetheless, something that she could not un-see or ignore now that she had noticed it.

"Everypony... I think we should just call it a day. I have a lot of research to do on this."

Yells erupted from the inside of the library as the orange and cyan mares marched up to the lavender one, demanding answers instead of being turned away, and the unicorn was frantically trying to calm them down, being fiercely defended by the white-coated one.

Their argument was so intense that none of them thought to look outside the window, to the branches of a tree that overlooked the library - for if they did, they would have seen two shadowed silhouettes watching the altercation, one of them wearing an amused expression.

"My, my..." The one balanced immaculately on top of one of the branches shook his head. "Even in such an idyllic world, conflict still exists. I suppose it would have been too much to hope for a utopia where everything was literally peaceful, no?"

"Mmm." The one seated on another branch slightly below him nodded, but said nothing more.

"Well, now that we're here... I must say, they really _do _behave like some of us sometimes, don't they? Quite the intriguing prospect... you don't suppose our dear leader might have chosen them because of this very reason?"

"Only the worthy may be successors to our legacy. You should know this as well as I do." The seated one replied curtly.

There was a light laugh in reply. "I suppose... Though I have to say, that yellow one, she seemed to take your presence pretty hard. Didn't I ever tell you to lighten up sometimes? Always so dark and broody..."

This was met with a noncommittal grunt. A hand of five digits grabbed onto the branch before its owner swung himself up. "Come. We've been here too long. It's time to go."

The balancing figure shrugged, sighing. "As you say..."

_-blink-_

And they were gone.

The argument inside the library continued on, absolutely none the wiser of the two mysterious spectators they had just entertained.


End file.
